


To Open Up

by amirthfulgirl



Category: Law & Order: SVU
Genre: Barba has three sisters, Barisi Opposites Challenge, Developing Relationship, First Kiss, Get Together, Idiots in Love, M/M, Matchmaking, kind of
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-04
Updated: 2020-09-04
Packaged: 2021-03-06 17:21:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,112
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26282587
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/amirthfulgirl/pseuds/amirthfulgirl
Summary: Rafael Barba has three sisters that love to be involved in their brother’s life, especially his love life. And when Rafael falls in love with a certain detective, his sisters decide to give both men a little push.
Relationships: Rafael Barba/Dominick "Sonny" Carisi Jr.
Comments: 12
Kudos: 41
Collections: Barisi Opposites Challenge





	To Open Up

**Author's Note:**

> Hey everyone!
> 
> This is a story for the Barisi Archive’s Opposites challenge for prompt #1 “Rafael is the one with three sisters”. I rushed it a bit at the end but I hope you’ll enjoy it anyway!  
> And just fyi, there are supposed to be small time jumps (like a few days or a week or so) when I put this ~~~.
> 
> Have fun reading!  
> 
> 
> English still isn’t my native language so sorry for any mistakes.

“Come on Rafael, there’s gotta be someone you wanna get it on with. You look even more uptight than last time we met, I bet you haven’t been laid in like a year.” Camila started.  
“That is not true and also none of your concern.” Rafael replied sending a glare his sister’s way.  
“Oh you very well know that that is indeed our concern. Who else do you think is gonna look after your love life. You? Clearly not.” Camila shot back.

“Maybe I should meet up with Rita or Olivia again, they could probably help.” His other sister, Alicia, remarked.  
“Why exactly again do you have to be best friends with my best friends, Alicia?” Rafael sighed.  
He should probably be used to this by now, his sisters pestered him about his love life every single time they met up over coffee but that didn’t mean it annoyed him any less.  
“How else am I gonna find out something about your life? You never tell us anything!” Alicia complained.

“Come on Rafael, there must be someone, you know you can’t lie to us.” Camila nudged him gently in the side.  
“There is no one.” Rafael answered firmly but he couldn’t help himself but let his thoughts drift to a certain tall, blonde and blue-eyed detective. Even thinking about the other man made Rafael smile. And although he immediately tried to hide that smile in his cup of coffee, his ever observant sisters picked up on it anyway.

“Ha I saw that Rafael!” Alicia exclaimed.  
“So there is someone.” Elena, his third sister, added with a smirk leaning across the small table they were sat at after having followed the conversation quietly until now.  
Rafael scowled at them. “No there isn-“  
“Shut up, Rafael, we all saw it. So tell us more. We’re gonna find out anyway, so save us the trouble.” Camila interrupted him. She was the oldest of the four of them and always made sure that that was clear to the other three. You really couldn’t get away with anything under her watch.

Rafael just absently stared into his coffee not wanting to reveal more of his feelings although he knew it was a lost game.  
“Is it someone we know? Someone you work with? Please don’t tell me you have something with Rita again.”  
“For god’s sake Alicia, that was 20 years ago and really wasn’t that big of a deal.” Rafael snarked back. Alicia was probably the loudest and the noisiest of his three sisters which sometimes made it a bit exhausting to be around her. It was truly a mystery to him how Olivia or Rita were friends with her.

Elena on the other hand was more of an observer, much like Rafael, but not less dangerous in cases like these.  
“So it is someone you work with?” She concluded.  
Rafael just gulped the rest of his coffee down instead of answering.  
For his sisters that was enough of an answer though and Camila continued. “So let’s see who’s there. Rita is ruled out apparently and I don’t think you’d be so secretive about something with Olivia although I do see it sometimes. So that leaves us with the detectives. Alicia, help me out what are their names?” 

“Fin and Rollins but I’d rule out both them as well. Oh and Olivia mentioned some new detective that joined recently.”  
“He’s been there for more than six months.” Rafael interjected but only realised too late what he just gave away.  
“Oh so it is him.” Alicia smirked at her little brother. She seemed very proud of her conclusion although probably every fool would have come up with that.

Rafael just wanted to sink into the ground now. He hated revealing his feelings so easily but his sisters were just too good at getting under his skin.  
They all looked at him expectantly, hoping that he might give away more information.  
But he just glared at all of them one after the other.  
“I think we’re done here for today, I gotta get to court.” Rafael scowled and pushed himself up from his chair. “I’d say it was nice seeing you all today but that would be a lie.”  
“Oh come on Rafa, we just want what’s best for you. And considering how protective you are he seems great.” Camila offered as a condolence. 

Alicia agreed excitingly. “Exactly! We’re just excited our baby brother’s in love.”  
“I’m not in love with Sonny.” Rafael exclaimed defensively.  
“I hate to break it to you, Rafael, but I think you are. And now stop beating yourself up about having feelings for someone but actually do something about them instead.” Camila reassured him.  
Rafael just gave her a tight-lipped smile before giving all of his sisters a kiss on the cheek as a goodbye.

“I’ll check with Olivia and look what I can find out about that man. I can’t believe this!” Alicia exclaimed happily as soon as Rafael was out the door.  
“That sounds like a good plan. Maybe I can get a hold of Rita. Elena you look after him, okay? You two always seem to understand each other without words.” Camila directed their operation.  
“Of course. But you two look out for him as well, I don’t want him to get hurt in this.” Elena added with a pointed look at her sisters, knowing very well what they could get up to.

They discussed a few more details of their plan before eventually parting ways, all with the goal to find out more about the mystery man by the name of Sonny that stole their brother’s heart.

~~~

Rafael hated how good his sisters could read him. But he should have known as soon as the conversation started that he wouldn’t be able to get out of it without revealing something. 

Now that he was by himself again he lead his thoughts wander to the blue-eyed detective that occupied his thoughts quite frequently.  
His start at SVU had been a bit rocky. Rafael was sure it was mainly the moustache on the detective’s upper lip to blame for that.  
But after the initial problems he fit in quite well and his detective skills and even his legal advice got better.

Recently they had started meeting up in Rafael’s office to discuss some cases. If Rafael’s heart’s desire hadn’t already been clear before, he wouldn’t have definitely fallen for the man in the last weeks.  
At first their meetings were solely of professional nature but in the more recent ones Rafael had found himself asking personal questions about Carisi personally and he had even stayed for a drink once.

Rafael hoped that maybe those nights could finally lead to something past their professional relationship. Even if it was just as friends for now. But he didn’t know how to, so his sisters’ help might actually not be the worst idea.

~~~

Twenty minutes ago a short, brown-haired woman had made her way into the precinct looking for the Lieu. She had then disappeared in the Lieu’s office and the women had lost themselves in a deep conversation.

This is why for the past twenty minutes Sonny was on edge. He was sure that by now after a little more than six months he knew all the important people that occasionally made their way into the precinct or said in their chairs at 1PP. But he had never seen that woman before in his life.

Sonny was so lost in his thoughts that he didn’t notice said woman leaving the Lieu’s office again and making her way across the bullpen towards his desk until she tapped on his desk to gain his attention.

That startled Sonny and the pen he had been playing with flew to the floor as he looked up in dark green eyes. They almost looked a bit like Barba’s but with a bit more of a brown tint.

“Uh hi, how can I help you?” Sonny asked after the initial shock died down.  
“You can actually. You must be Sonny. I’m Alicia Barba, Rafael’s sister.” The woman held out a hand to Sonny with a confident smile on her lips.

“Yeah I’m Sonny. I had no idea Barba had a sister.” Sonny stated still a bit confused by the whole situation. He hasn’t expected to meet Barba’s sister totally out of the blue when he got up today in the morning. He hadn’t even known that Barba had siblings, he had always seemed like a bit of an only child to Sonny.

“Oh I’m not the only one.” The woman - Alicia - laughed. “There are two more but the other two weren’t bothered to come down here. And I’m friends with Olivia.”  
“You’re friends with your brother’s best friend?” Sonny should really stop asking so stupid questions, no wonder he was so bad at first impressions.  
Alicia just laughed again. “Wow I see how you and my brother fit together, he keeps saying the same thing.”

Sonny looked even more confused after the first part of the sentence. For what where he and Barba supposed to fit together? It was not like the other man had a huge interest into Sonny. They had started spending more time together sure but Sonny was certain that was more for convenience’s sake and not because the ADA actually liked him.

“Okay so before I confuse you even more, why don’t I take you out to lunch so we can talk. Olivia already gave her okay, so you don’t have to worry about that.” Alicia added, knowing already what Sonny was about to ask.

Sonny just nodded, not trusting his ability to form a sentence that wasn’t completely stupid, and grabbed his jacket from the back of his chair and followed Alicia out of the precinct.

~~~

“When will you finally tell me why you actually want to talk?” Sonny finally asked as they made their way to a corner table in a small cafe near the precinct.

“I wanna get to know my brother’s friends. It’s not like he has a lot of them.” Alicia replied simply.  
“I’m not sure your brother actually considers me his friends.” Sonny replied.  
“Oh I can assure you he does, even if it would take him a lot of courage to admit that.”  
Sonny looked at her questionably. “I still don’t believe you but what do you wanna know?”

With that Alicia started questioning Sonny about himself, his growing up, his parents and so on. Sonny answered all questions without hesitation although he was still a bit wary of the whole situation.

“So you would consider my brother your friend?” Alicia eventually asked.  
“Yeah I would say that. I mean as I said I don’t think it’s a two-sided friendship but I’m okay with that. I love learning stuff from him and working together.” Letting the thoughts of the last few nights with Barba in his office play through his mind, Sonny couldn’t hold back the smile that spread across his lips.

“I see.” Alicia paused for a moment, thinking about her next response before deciding to get straight to the point. “You do seem to like him a lot. You ever thought about taking it further than friendship?”  
“What... I... Why...” Sonny’s cheeks immediately turned bright pink and he looked down at his sandwich, ashamed that he was found out so easily. And not by just anyone but by Barba’s sister herself.

Alicia just laughed. “You’re cute when you’re flustered. But more to the point, have you ever made your intentions clear to my brother?”  
“What no, why would I do that? He doesn’t even consider us friends, I’m not sure he even wants to be that.”  
“I don’t want to tell you all my brother’s feelings right now, he can do that himself. But maybe give it a try, ask him about friendship. Or even more. He’ll probably want to kill me afterwards but just ignore that.” Alicia tried to push Sonny with a reassuring smile.

Sonny just looked back at her with a dumbfounded expression, not sure how he should interpret the things Alicia just told him.  
They should probably make him hopeful and excited but instead he was starting to get angry at Alicia for playing with his feelings like that because even after what she just said he was sure that there was probably never gonna be anything more than a professional relationship between him and Barba.  
“Okay I think we’re done here for today and I’m gonna go back to the precinct. It was... interesting to meet you.” Sonny eventually said while getting up to leave.  
He held out a Alicia who took it happily before leaving the cafe quickly.

~~~

Rafael didn’t expect company in his office this late in the evening so he was even more surprised to see his sister walking through the door.  
“What are you doing here, Camila?” Rafael asked cautiously.  
Whenever his sisters decided to visit him at work, there was usually something up and that something was usually not good.

“I just wanted to see what you’re up to. I haven’t been in your office in ages.” Camila answered indifferently while walking around occasionally picking some of Rafael’s decor up and studying it. But Rafael could see the smirk that played across her lips no matter how hard Camila tried to hide it.  
“Stop fucking around and tell me what’s going on. You know I don’t like these little games of you.”

“Alicia talked to your Sonny last week.”  
Rafael was out of his chair before he could even form a coherent thought.  
“She did what?!” The response finally came in an octave higher than his usual voice.  
He had walked across the room to stand in front of Camila who now at least looked a little bit terrified of her little brother although he was quite a bit smaller than her.

“You asked us to help you so we-“  
“I never asked you to do anything. Especially not talk to him!”  
“How else were we supposed to move this along? Wait another three years until you two might get your act together? I really didn’t want to be part of that.”  
“You know I’m perfectly capable of handling my love life myself. And my relationship with Sonny is none of your business.”  
“Oh so it’s a relationship now?” Camila asked with a smirk.  
“It’s not.” Rafael admitted heavy-hearted before plopping down onto his couch and burying his head in his hands.

Camila sat down next to him, laying a hand on his knee.  
“But you want it to be one?”  
Rafael just answered with a muffled yeah.  
“What’s holding you back then?”  
Rafael lifted his head and looked at her in disbelief. “Are you serious?! Everything! He doesn’t even like me, Camila. I don’t even know how to act around him!”  
“But I thought you two have started hanging out more by yourselves?”  
“Yeah sure but I’m certain he’s just doing it for professional reasons. I mean he has a point, my job’s the only interesting thing about me.”  
“Now you’re just lying, Rafael. I can assure you he finds a lot more things about you interesting besides your job.”  
“Stop talking like that! If he actually wanted more he’d have shown me that and he didn’t so stop saying something like that.” Rafael angrily replied.

But Camila wasn’t done yet. “Have you ever thought about why he might not want to tell you certain things?” Rafael just looked at her confused whereupon she just rolled her eyes. “Maybe because you build walls around yourself and close yourself off even to the people that care about you, Rafael. Sometimes you have to make a few openings in your walls or otherwise you’ll forever be stuck behind them by yourself.”

Rafael just looked down at his hands now in his lap. Deep down he knew Camila had a point and oh how much he wanted to make an opening for Sonny but he wouldn’t be himself if he wasn’t irrationally afraid of that. But maybe Sonny was worth overcoming that.

~~~

A week later Sonny and Rafael were once again having a late night going over case notes in the latter’s office. But Rafael hadn’t been able to concentrate a lot on the notes before him. He had created at least ten different scenarios how he could approach the very obvious tension in the room.

They were both sitting on the couch a small distance between them but not as much as usual. Rafael had contemplated several times to just press his thigh against Sonny’s in an attempt to reach for something.  
But right now he was just staring at the other man, mesmerised by the lines of concentration on the detective’s face, his tongue peaking out between in his lips. 

And god how much Rafael wanted to kiss those pink lips. He traced his tongue along his own bottom lip still shamelessly staring at the other man. He rearranged his sitting position a little bit and moved even closer.

And then he couldn’t help himself anymore.  
A soft “Sonny.” escaped his lips and the younger man looked up in surprise.  
They just stared into each other’s eyes for a few seconds before Sonny’s eyes momentarily flicked to Rafael’s lips.

But then Sonny looked away again shaking his head. He slowly moved his pen and the notes from his lap to the coffee table in front of him before sitting up and fully turning towards Rafael.

“Ba- Rafael, I... please tell me you actually want this, me. I want this so so much but I can’t do this as one time thing, please.” Sonny pleaded quietly fidgeting with his hands in his lap.  
Rafael put his hand on top of Sonny’s, stilling his movements. “God Sonny no, not just a one time thing. I’m sorry if I ever gave you the impression I don’t want you. And sorry for my sisters approaching you like that.” They both shared a small laugh like that.

“Well I do think they gave us a little push.” Sonny smiled.  
A quite “yeah” escaped Rafael’s lips. He was way too overwhelmed and amazed by those beautiful blue eyes looking at him to form more thoughts for now except for one question. “Can I kiss you?”  
“Yes.” A huge smile spread across Sonny’s lips creating deep dimples and making his eyes sparkle.

Rafael put a tentative hand on the other man’s cheek, grazing a dimple with his thumb.  
He leaned forward feeling Sonny’s breath on his lips before finally closing the distance between them.

Sometimes his sisters were good for something after all.

**Author's Note:**

> I hope you enjoyed it! Thanks for reading!
> 
> I’m always happy about kudos and comments.
> 
> You can find me on twitter @ndrwsctt.


End file.
